MAN WITH THE DONKEY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 66, 15 September 1937, Page 9

MAN WITH THE DONKEY

THE ORIGINAL PHOTO

DUNEDIN MAN IN POSSESSION

(By Telegraph.) * (Special to the "Evening Post.") • DUNEDIN, This Day.

A "Star" representative was shown. the photograph of the man with the donkey taken on Gallipoli. by a Dunedin man from which it is claimed Sapper Moore-Jones made his original painting. The photograph is in the possession of Mr. J. S. Skinner. In 1917 Moore-Jones paid a visit to Dunedin and lectured on Gallipoli. Mr. Skinner, who had returned from the war, was vice-president of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers' Association at the time, and attended one of the lectures as the representative of the association. He asked Moore-Jones if he would cite to see a photograph of the man with the donkey, and the artist, who stated that he had never previously seen one, expressed his surprise and delight at the opportunity of doing so. So mucjr did the photograph appeal to him thaf he asked for a loan of it in order.^td make a sketch from it, and afterward* a painting. Having taken a penci? sketch, Moore-Jones returned th« photograph to Mr. Skinner and pro* mised Mr. Skinner a coloured sketch.

The photograph in Mr. SkinngKt possession was taken on Gallipoli by James Jackson, who left New Zealand as an ambulance man with the Main Body, and who is working in DunecJin today. Mr. Skinner was given a copy of the photograph by Jackson. The wounded man is sitting upright, aiid has not his head on the other map's shoulder, as in Moore-Jones's painting, but Mr. Skinner thinks the artist may have taken the liberty to alter .tSic position. himself. ;'JJ

It was suggested to a "Star" representative by, Mr. Skinner and others who were on Gallipoli that thQ nuutt with the donkey in the photogwipiii: and in Moore-Jones's painting ir iibi Simpson, but a man who contr-iuiii the work after Simpson was killed. Strangely enough, this is given soife confirmation by the Press Association cable message received today from Australia. "j